Alfred Hitchcock: Vertigo

Vertigo offers a thrilling and captivating playable story that touches on some very serious themes. Not for the feint hearted or weak in temperament.

With Vertigo, Pendulo Studios is abandoning the genre of puzzle adventure games in favor of slightly interactive fictions, Dontnod Entertainment style. The initial promise was enticing, but the pacing issues, lack of real gameplay, and bugs got the better of our enthusiasm.

Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo offers a worthy tribute to the master of anxiety. Not only does it respect the codes of the films of the time and provides us with a soundtrack at the height of its model, but it also relies on a perfectly crafted scenario, with numerous twists and turns that keep us on the edge of our seats. It's a pity that it suffers from a not always perfect technique, as well as an often disastrous lip animation. But if you are a fan of narrative games and Hitchcock's films, you should forgive this pitfall as the atmosphere is there and the flashbacks are appreciable.

Alfred Hitchcock: Vertigo is an intriguing thriller if not breathtaking. Its common thread is woven through the mysteries that we are keen to unveil. But it suffers from such a slow pace that it can become heavy. The spectacle is also appreciated in half-tone; Pendulo Studios develops a conclusive sound atmosphere to the detriment of particularly lame animation and technique.

Vertigo's main problem, probably, is its ambition. When you choose such a cumbersome source of inspiration, the risk of ending up crushed by it is real. The Pendulo game wisely chooses not to retrace the path traced by Hitchcock, but to borrow the main theme. Unfortunately, however, it manages to keep the interest high only in the initial stages, then a under-the-bar acting and questionable narrative choices prevail over originality. You could appreciate the attempt, not so much the outcome.

Whilst its exciting plot twists are sure to have you dizzy with surprise, Vertigo ultimately fails to stand up against the weight of expectation brought about by its own name.

This version of Vertigo portrays women in a way that is seriously difficult to stomach in a post-#MeToo era. Here, women prey on an unsuspecting man using, for instance, sex and hypnosis to lure him in and do him harm. Male trauma is of course absolutely real, but this game doesn’t have the tools to examine it with the required care, and ends up essentially saying #MenToo – and doing a significant disservice to the body of cinematic work that inspires it.

A narrative game with a very gripping story! Much better done than a telltale game. The screenplay is very well written and the characters well played. However, the gameplay remains very simplistic in this type of game, we are more spectator than actor and I am not sure that there are several possible endings. Note that there are sometimes a few errors such as managing the volume of voice sound with music. But overall the 10 hours spent on the title were very nice!

Un buena aventura narrativa en forma de novela de suspense interactiva. Trama y giros de guión que enganchan, aunque su conclusión termina haciéndose innecesariamente larga. La trama se va oscureciendo según avanzas, tocando temas como los trastornos psicológicos, la psicopatía, el maltrato infantil, los abusos sexuales y conflictos no resueltos. Su duración, es de unas 8-9 horas de juego. Aunque lineales y algo repetitivas, la dinámicas de juego y sencillos QTE cumplen correctamente su principal función, que es servir como pretextos para la revelación y resolución progresivas del misterio o misterios que se nos plantean. Aunque las expresiones faciales de los personajes es mejorable, los entornos y escenarios principales está bien conseguidos visual y estéticamente. También cuenta con buenos diálogos y doblaje al castellano. El rendimiento gráfico es bueno la mayoría del tiempo, aunque hay algunas partes de cinemáticas con bajones y tirones importantes de FPS.

Tras completar la historia, (sin todos los logros), puedo decir que la historia en si está interesante y bien desarrollada; una trama sobre los oscuros pasados de varios de los protagonistas, con infancias llenas de abusos y problemas familiares, como puede alguna adicción. Aquí la historia se centra en Ed, quien tuvo una infancia complicada, por culpa de su padre, pero tras un terrible accidente en coche, y la muerte de su familia, su tía se ha encargado de lavarle el cerebro, manteniéndole en el olvido gran parte de la verdad. No es la mejor novela visual que he jugado, pero merece la pena probarla y darle una oportunidad. 6/10

I thought it couldnt be worse than tintin reporter cigars of the pharaoh and I was mistaken.

The story of the game is very predictable and unfortunately quite simple. The mechanics of the game are quite few, even Telltale games have much more mechanics. The flow of the game is extremely slow. I really pushed myself until I finished the game. Facial modeling and animations are very bad. Unfortunately, I bought it with high hopes and regretted it very much.